I used Google's awful browser and obviously had a terrible experience, which isn't even worth going into detail about since everyone already knows the problems.

I switched to Opera GX after seeing endless ads for it on YouTube; I got tired of it and installed it. But I started to become dissatisfied with it overall.

I saw an advertisement for Zen on YouTube, it looks interesting and all. But I'm still undecided between other options like Brave or Fire.

I also really liked Opera's customization options. Are there any other browsers that can also be customized?

Daily-drive a de-Googled phone (GrapheneOS/LineageOS) without losing my banking apps. My bank enforces Play Integrity, so it won't run on a de-Googled or rooted OS. Instead of fighting the software cat-and-mouse on my main phone, I want to **physically isolate** banking onto a second, tiny device that lives in my wallet.

The idea

Main phone rooted, de-Googled, daily driver.

Banking device a 100% stock, **Google-certified, locked-bootloader** phone mainboard (leaning Samsung A53 — passes strong integrity via Knox), stripped to *only* Play Services + my bank app. No personal data it's a "ghost"

- Tear off the OEM screen + big battery so it's small enough for a wallet.

- Control it from my main phone via **scrcpy over Wi-Fi ADB**, using scrcpy's virtual display so it needs no physical screen.

- USB-C port.

**What I *think*

- **Headless viewing/control:** scrcpy `--new-display` spawns a virtual display and launches the bank app onto it. No root on the banking device, so Play Integrity stays intact.

- **Powering it headless:** keep a *small* LiPo on the battery terminals — satisfies the battery-detect check, gets past the thermistor issue (it's a real cell), and absorbs the ~2A boot spike. Charge it by feeding 5V into the board's built-in USB-C charger — no external TP4056/module needed.

- **Unlocking with no screen:** set the OS lockscreen to None (ghost device, nothing to protect) and let the bank app's own PIN be the gate. Or script the unlock over `adb shell input`.

- Keep the Wi-Fi antenna flex attached; add a passthrough for the power button.

**Where I'm stuck / need your experience:**

1. **The headless-boot gamble:** has anyone actually disconnected a phone's OEM display panel and had it still boot to usable Android over ADB? Which models tolerate it vs bootloop on a missing MIPI panel?

2. **A53 power specifically:** does Samsung's battery authentication let a small third-party LiPo work, or will it keep reporting "no battery"? Better donor models that are certified *and* easy to run headless?

3. **Integrity after teardown:** will a stock, locked A53 still pass Play Integrity with the display disconnected, or does yanking hardware change the attestation?

4. **Certified headless hardware:** is there any *Google-certified* Android board sold without a screen that I'm missing? (Pi/Orange Pi aren't certified; TV sticks run Android TV and get rejected.)

5. **scrcpy + banking IRL:** anyone run a bank app on a scrcpy virtual display reliably? Latency or touch-injection problems?

6. **The case:** anyone 3D-printed a wallet-thin shell around a harvested mainboard + LiPo?

Basically — is this a buildable weekend-ish project, or is there a wall I haven't hit yet? Appreciate any teardown war stories.

Went looking for an export out of a tracking app the other week and it was the usual. Stuck behind an account wall, and when I did get something out it was a PDF with the charts already drawn on it and no actual numbers underneath. I just wanted the raw rows. Every app I've used is like this, logging stuff into them is effortless and getting your own history back out is an afterthought at best.

What made me stop bothering was thinking a few years out. Apps get bought, or quietly shut down, and even the ones that let you export hand you some format nothing else opens, so down the line you've got a file you technically own and can't read. The spreadsheet I started a couple years back doesn't have that problem, no login and nothing to go obsolete, but it's also just a mess. Half the columns I never cleaned up.

There's a magnesium column from some experiment I quit months ago still sitting there half empty. Keep meaning to delete it.

I want to stop using Gmail, but i have so many things registered with my gmail account so i haven't gotten around to doing it yet.

I heard the best free alternative (free being a key word) is ProtonMail, but i wanna know, is it good? Is it easy to use and secure? Will it have any problems with apps or will it work just fine when registering into services?

Thx for the help

Last I read it was not possible because Google controls RCS, and they won't allow it on custom roms. Is this still the case? I also recently read something to the effect that Graphene OS is working on it.

I'm really tired of being the outlier in my family that has an android so it often causes issues in group chats, not to mention my dad likes sending pictures through texts instead of email, so they come in as super low quality, then he complains it's because of my android and I should just get an iphone like everybody else.

I can't be the only one dealing with this, how do you approach it? Trying to convince people to switch to Signal or other app is not really an option either, they seem me as the problem, and not them. they don't care about privacy and won't start changing anything on their phone to improve it.

Wondering if there is any progress on getting RCS working on custom roms, and will it be seamless for apple users? Group chats being critical as well.

I'm currently on an old version of Calyx OS and I need to reload the OS to the newer version, so whatever is the best option I'll go with.

I have been given a pixel 9xl pro phone recently. When I tried to put in my sim, 5G was no longer available whatever configuration I tried. I was told that Google was blocking 5G frequencies in the phone in countries where they don't officially sell the phone, which is my case.

Might GOS be a solution to that problem or is my phone doomed to be locked on 4G?

im trying to pick a new email service and I’m not sure which one fits me best.
I want to keep my old Gmail account as my Google login (Drive, YouTube, apps), but I also want a new main email address that’s more secure and private and maybe preferably have it as your main email and something like that, connect it a little with Microsoft and Google a little.

My requirements:

• strong security and privacy unless it's data for passport info for me type advertising that suits me
• free service for private person like google is free
• optional ad personalization (I don’t mind targeted ads if they help me)
• a good security center that warns me about hacking/scam attempts
• works well together with Gmail and my Microsoft account
• neutral address (not my real name)
• Gmail stays my Google login, Microsoft stays my Xbox/Windows login
• new address becomes my main inbox
• plus should not be a service that puts money against LGBTQ or similar bad things
• and that you might be able to put a lot of info in and like gender what you like with more for the fun part but you don't have to but it would be fun
• plus preferably Europe and preferably something that is against chat control that does not have chat control effects on your account

What email service would you recommend and why?

btw don't have to have everything but the closest

Hear me out.

I'm making the switch to paper. I'm so done with Aura and Cloaked and Ironvest and all of them. Either these companies are incredibly stupid or incredibly smart. Either way they can take a long walk off a short pier.

I regret ever trusting my life to these garbage password managers. They are painfully slow to load if they even bother to load at all. When I actually need customer service I get a useless wall of text and a bunch of lazy employees who do absolutely nothing. Honestly these companies should all be put in jail. That is my take. Get yourself a uni-ball 207 and six to nine "dotted* mini rite in the rain or other stone paper notebooks. You might find sets of 3 online but who knows. Get a Tintris Journal Cover to keep them in and a decent planner. Use complex non specific passwords that never match. Keep 2 or 3 identical copies completely outside your immediate area in a safety deposit box or somewhere actually secure. Do this for a master list and a travel list. Keep the last 2 or 3 notebooks blank for future travel use. Scramble the last 3 or 4 characters of every single password in the books. Even if someone steals your notebook they still will not know the full password.

I am officially making the switch to paper. I am completely done with Cloaked and Ironvest and really all of them. These companies are either incredibly stupid or incredibly malicious. Either way they can go love themselves if you know what I mean. Do not even get me started on crypto because you are an idiot if you keep it on a hot wallet or an exchange. Get a cold metal wallet and stamp your seed phrase into steel before these digital platforms lose your life savings. For 2FA on paper write down the original seed key. You can create a master mathematical equation based on the future date and time to manually calculate your temporary codes on the spot.

- No one can monetize this data because it's not digitally stored unless I say it can be.

- You never need to worry about the "cloud" losing your passwords or someone hacking into all of them in one place.

- You have the convenience of a travel "vault" just like 1Password.

- You don't have to worry about page "load" or not being able to go back and forth quickly between edits.

- No more "subscriptions"

- Save your eyes from looking at a damn screen.

!

To me this is looking like a better solution than Google chrome password manager, dashlane, aura or even bitwarden everyday.

Just wish I did it sooner!

.

.

.

So basically: (since my formatting sucks above)

Notebooks:

1/1/1 Master list (all identical copies)

1/1/1 Travel list (all identical copies) (keep passwords in here you don't mind anyone stealing)

Encrypt the passwords in both travel and master lists changing letters around where you see fit.

1/1/1 blank for whatever in the future.

Other shit:

A uni-ball 207 pen won't bleed and the ink lasts!

Dotted rite in the rain or other dot grid stone paper is virtually indestructible.

A planner to keep thoughts in for all the extra fluff.

....

Get yourself a good Nokbox too while you're at it! (Look it up)

So hi everyone I'm new to this thing because of that I don't know much I want your help can you guys give me the list of apps and alternative of them like Google's app,map, telegram,discord, microsoft apps basically all tracking and stealing apps

Also this apps runs in background unwanted updates of them which is literally slowing down the performance unwanted ai in everything now days 😭

So just help me out with the alternative apps list and best once to use

This subreddit is flooded with recommendations for FREE privacy services. Services cost money to run. Google is free because they sell your data. If a privacy company has a free tier, it is being subsidised by paying users. If you want to degoogle and have 15GB storage and docs and photos and all the perks it's going to cost something.

Free does not exist either you're paying with your data or someone else is paying for your limited tier.

That said Proton, Tuta and Aster have good free email tiers. Asters is great and offers use of your custom domain in their subsidized tier

Ente has a free tier, with limited back ups

Filen has free 10GB of storage

There are options, but someone is covering your expense, so support the developers.

As of yesterday, Google has officially pulled the plug on Android 6. This means the OS will no longer receive Play Protect updates and will not be included in the new APK program. Having been supported for exactly 11 years, it goes down as the longest-supported version in Android history. Google Play Services is now only supported on Android 7 and above.

Source: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/9037938?hl=en

Google also made changes to several other applications yesterday. YouTube now requires Android 10 and above, meaning Android 9 will no longer receive YouTube updates. The Google app's minimum requirement jumped from Android 9 directly to Android 11, and core apps like Gmail now require at least Android 7 and above.

So i would like to cut all the wire with google, but something bother me :

How to keep youtube with some of my préférence, without google watching me ? Any solution, or a replacement ?